1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to color-slide duplicators of the type in which a color-slide is positioned over an opening in a wall of a housing containing a light source so that the slide can be photographically reproduced by a camera supported above the housing, and more particularly is directed to an improved assembly for supporting a slide to be duplicated over the illuminated opening of the housing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Color slide duplicators exist in which a housing contains a light source for illuminating an opening in a wall of the housing over which there is supported a slide to be duplicated, and a camera is supported above the housing for photographically reproducing the supported slide. In such existing color-slide duplicators, for the purpose of supporting the slide to be duplicated above the illuminated opening of the housing, a carrier plate is fixedly secured to the housing, as by screws, and has an aperture registering with the illuminated opening. Guide bars are mounted on the carrier plate at opposed sides of the aperture and are formed with V-shaped grooves opening laterally toward each other along their confronting edge surfaces. Further, one of the guide bars is urged resiliently in the lateral direction toward the other. Thus, a slide to be duplicated has its opposite edges engaged in the V-shaped grooves of the guide bars so as to be positioned for illumination through the carrier plate aperture from the housing opening therebelow. Since the carrier plate is fixed relative to the housing, the position of the slide relative to the field of view of the camera cannot be readily changed and, therefore, is not convenient to reproduce or duplicate only a selected portion of the slide. Further, if the slide has a substantially rigid frame engaged in the V-shaped grooves of the guide bars, the slide may be fairly satisfactorily positioned in a substantially flat plane relative to the illuminated opening. However, if the slide is unmounted, that is, merely constituted by a flexible film without a rigid supporting frame thereabout, the resilient force urging one guide bar laterally toward the other buckles the film out of a flat plane when opposed edges of the film are received in the V-shaped grooves of the guide bars. Thus, when an unmounted slide is duplicated distortion is likely to occur. Further, the described slide supporting arrangements in the existing color-slide duplicators are not suitable for accurately and reliably positioning two or more superposed slides when it is desired to reproduce a composite image therefrom. More particularly, due to the V-shaped grooves in the guide bars, at least one of the super-posed slides will not be firmly gripped by the guide bars.